Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of lengthening the qualifying period for settlement from five years to ten years for young adults and children under Appendix Private Life to the Immigration Rules.

The earned settlement model, proposed in A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The consultation directly seeks views on retaining the current arrangement, whereby children and young adults who grew up in the UK without immigration status my settle five years after regularising that status.

Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following that consultation. The final model will also be subject to economic and equality impact assessment, which we have committed to publish in due course.